Our print publications are advertiser supported. For those wishing to access our content online, we have implemented a small charge so we may continue to provide our valued readers and community with unique, high quality local content. Thank you for supporting your local newspaper.

Coming Attractions

Young actress isn’t just going through a stage

Recommended activities for the coming week

Not many people are lucky enough to know what they do with their lives by the time they reach important milestones like graduating from high school. So, I’m not sure if there’s a name for how lucky 10-year-old Arvadan Payton Maynard is — she’s known she wanted to act since she was 2 years old.

“When I was 2, my mom started noticing I was really good at memorizing stuff, and could do it quickly,” she said. “That was kind of the start, and by the time I was 6, we started looking for an agency.”

In the ensuing years Maynard has worked in several independent films and was recently cast as one of the leads in a new mystery and science fiction TV series called “Frozen Dead” about cryogenics that is filming in Nederland. And she recently took to the stage for the first time in the role of the Young Queen Elizabeth II in Aurora’s Vintage Theatre’s production of “The Audience.”

“What I like about the theater is you can react to the audience and they can react to you. When you’re doing film or TV, you don’t get that connection,” she said. “It’s been my favorite acting experience yet. I think it has so much potential to make me grow as actress and person.”

As someone who has been acting locally for so much of her life, Maynard has seen more film and TV opportunities become available in the metro area, but still not as many as places like Los Angeles and New York City.

“Last summer got to be an extra in a feature film called ‘Unmarked,’ and now this TV series,” she said. “We’ll be continuing work on it through the summer and will start shopping it around in August. I do have a five-year commitment if it gets picked up.”

As to what Maynard’s future holds, in addition to acting she loves dance, so she wants to continue her studies in the fields of dance, drama and acting, and may even consider teaching at the Doral Academy in Westminster — the school she currently attends.

“When I get on the stage, I get to leave the past behind and make a new future for myself,” she said. “I want the chance to inspire other kids to do what they love and be what they want to be.”

Town Hall Arts announces new season

Anticipation is one of the great pleasures in life if properly appreciated, and fans of theater and live music now have a several months of anticipation ahead of them with the announcement of Littleton’s Town Hall Arts Center 37th season.

The 2018-2019 season offers up five musicals and a play — “American Idiot” runs from Sept. 7 through Oct. 7, “A Christmas Carol: The Musical” from Nov. 9 through Dec. 23, “Casa Valentina” from Jan. 11 through Feb. 3, “Dames at Sea” from Feb. 15 through March 17, “The World Goes ‘Round” from March 29 through April 28, and the season closes with “Sister Act,” which runs from May 17 to June 16.

For music lovers, the new season starts with the Littleton Jazz Festival at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 17, followed by Lannie Garrett’s “Swing Sets” running at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11, 12, 13 and 2 p.m. on the 14th. The next performance is The Patsy Decline show, running at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 18, 19, 20 and 2 p.m. on Oct. 21, followed by Buckstein’s performance at 7 p.m. on Jan. 13. The 17th Avenue Allstars Sunday, featuring the National Acappella Champions, is at 7 p.m. on Feb. 24, and The Nacho Men will be stopping by at 7 p.m. on March 3. Soul legend Hazel Miller is stopping by the center at 7 p.m. on April 7, followed by the Colorado Children’s Chorale at 7 p.m. on April 28. The season ends with the Deranged Divas at 7 p.m. on June 9.

Season tickets are available now, and single tickets go on sale on July 24. For tickets and information on all the shows, visit www.TownHallArtsCenter.org.

A different kind of school band concert

Littleton’s School of Rock specifically caters to those looking to master the vital rock components — guitar, bass, drums, piano and vocals — and take their talents to stages in Denver and beyond.

School of Rock students will get the chance to live the life of a bar band at Moe’s Original BBQ, 3295 S. Broadway, at noon on Saturday, May 18, with their performance of The Doors vs. Jefferson Airplane.

A pair of 1960s psychedelic rock titans, both bands made an enormous impact on musicians of the time and those still following in their footsteps 50 years later.

Audiences will have the opportunity to decide which band is the better as students perform some of both bands’ best.

Jazz to start the summer at Five Points

One of the great things about jazz is the diversity of musicians and styles that fit comfortably inside this dynamic and vital genre.

One of the best examples of this in the metro area is the annual Five Points Jazz Festival, which will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 19 and go to 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 20.

The free, family-friendly festival features more than 45 bands playing on 10 stages on Welton Street, between 26th and 29th streets. Musicians will be performing all kinds of subgenres, from jazz and bop to swing and funk. Other activities include an art and food marketplace, a musicians’ jam session, film screenings, and a family zone featuring yoga, face painting, a giant slide, jumpy castle and more.

Clarke’s Concert of the Week — Japandroids at the Ogden

Last year, Vancouver’s Japandroids reaffirmed their status as one of the purest rock bands working in modern music with their third album, “Near to the Wild Heart of Life.”

I saw them on their first tour in years that March and they completely blew me away.

Which means I can objectively say that nobody should miss Japandroids as they stop by the Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Avenue, at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 22.

Not only will the show feature Japandroids but indie rock legends Wolf Parade. The group made some of the early 2000’s catchiest rock records and went on indefinite hiatus in 2011. The group returned in January of last year and released a great album called “Cry Cry Cry” in October.

As he prepared to open a fifth business in Arvada, Scott Spears set his sights on trying something new. Having been an on-and-off vegan for years, Spears decided to create a restaurant that primarily …

On May 21, over 40 Lakewood residents gathered to protest Alabama's new abortion law. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey recently signed a law that makes performing an abortion a felony in almost all cases unless …